Nations that outpace the United States in education use many strategies to help their students excel. They do, however, share one: They set high requirements to become a teacher, hold those who become one in high esteem and offer the instructors plenty of support.

On Wednesday and today, education leaders - including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, the nation's largest teacher unions and officials from the highest-scoring countries - are meeting in New York to identify the best teaching practices.

The meeting comes after the recently released results of the Programme for International Student Assessment exam of 15-year-olds alarmed educators in the United States. Out of 34 countries, it ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math.

"On the one hand, the United States has a very expensive education system in international standards," said Andreas Schleicher, who directs the exam. "On the other hand, it's one of the systems where teachers get the lowest salaries.

"Then you ask yourself, how do you square those things?"

Schleicher co-authored a report, released Wednesday during the conference, that concluded that for the U.S. to remain competitive, it must raise the status of the teaching profession. An additional report released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development identified several effective practices observed in the top-performing regions and countries:

-- They draw teachers from the same pool of applicants as those from other selective professional careers.